Herbs, Veggies, Dried Herbs, Books, and More!www.Richters.com

My name is Jane Fountain and I live in Charlotte, NC. I come from a long line of family members (with the exception of my Mother) of plant growers, and flower lovers. Both of my grandmothers could practically take a piece of firewood, nurture it, and have it grow back into whichever tree it was cut from. For years, my chosen occupation was that of plant shop worker, progressing to nursery person, to greenhouse grower /manager. I tell you all this so you’ll know I have a little bit of a background with plants. Herbs and perennials are my favorites. I have a lovely little herb garden sprinkled with a few perennials for a little more show. In a couple of weeks, I’m teaching a workshop on growing a kitchen garden and a container garden with just your basic mint, sage, chives, etc.

I visited most all of the nurseries here in this area with the plan to buy five different herbs for the women to use in their own containers. There are a total of 10 women in the workshop. 50 plants. The cheapest herbs I could find were 4.00 per plant. That’s fine if I’m picking out some for a garden, but for a workshop that needed 50 plants, this was pretty cost prohibitive. I had already committed to planting a container garden, so I couldn’t back out now.

I was whining to a friend of mine about the high cost of this little adventure when she said she had taken a workshop on salves and lotions and teas, etc., (she’s a nurse), and the plants used in her workshop had come from you. She loaned me a catalog, and I went berserk. The little cell packs of 12 were PERFECT! I ordered all the plants I needed for the workshop and then several plants for myself. I told the extremely nice person who helped me that I knew it was short notice, but I had to have these in time for the class. I’m teaching it 200 miles away on top of a beautiful mountain, and they needed to be there the day before I left. She assured me they would get there in time.

They arrived last Friday.UPS tossed them around so much, that the tags were all out of the pots. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but I ordered about 5 different varieties of mints, and I can’t tell them apart. The most exciting one I ordered was a Banana mint, and I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m sure once they get bigger, I’ll be able to figure it out. I ordered two different type sages -- a White sage, that I’ve looked for everywhere and couldn’t find. I use it in purifying ceremonies in my house. I was having to wait for the Native American Festival to come around every year to replace what I had. Now I’m growing my own! The other is a Grape Sage. I was pretty excited about it. When I opened the box, very much to my disappointment, the grape sage had what seems to be a fungus. All of the leaves had fallen off and the stem is blackening from the top down. That really disappointed me -- that sounded so cool. I wonder how it tastes in a turkey?.

The cell packs seemed to be in pretty good shape, but the next day, I noticed one of the Globe Basil’s was curling up and turning brown. No problem, I could spare up to two. This morning 9 were bad. Today, Monday evening at 5:55, none are left.

Bummer.

I called Cheryl in customer service, and left a message. She called me back a couple of hours ago, and I explained the problem to her. I tried to re-order the sage, but she said it was unavailable due to crop failure. I told her about the basil, and she said there had been problems with it too, so I re-ordered a pack of mint to take its place. She was SO nice. I couldn’t have been more pleased with anyone in ANY customer service. She was so helpful. I was left with a really good feeling. I explained the time crunch that I was in, and she assured me that I would have my replacement pack before I left for the weekend.

I was so overall pleased with the plants that I received the first time that I placed another order the day after they came. I plan on ordering many more from you. I want to have a small garden devoted to nothing but dye plants. I also make handmade paper, and do weaving, so I’m looking forward to making my own dyes.

This has turned into such a long e-mail that you’re probably having to read it in installments, but I cant say enough good things about your company, and the people I’ve dealt with. Thank you.

One more thing - Your catalogs are wonderful, and I want to thank you for not charging for them. I never order from a company that makes me pay to get their catalog. I ordered 12 of them to give out as handouts in my workshop, and I hope they enjoy it as much as I have. Thank you for making this such a nice experience, and I can’t wait to get my next order.